Now, don't get me wrong. I think Obama has been right about Afghanistan all along. We should have finished the job there and not let bin Laden and gang escape while we were occupied occupying Iraq.

But now I'm scratching my head. Word out of the administration is that Obama wants to open a dialog with “moderate elements of the Taliban.”

Members of the new administration claim that up to 75% of those in the Taliban are “moderates,” and therefore worth trying to sweet talk into behaving themselves.

They want to do this because they figure doing just that got them out of a jam in Anbar provenance, Iraq.

But insurgent Iraqi Sunnis are down right Jeffersonian democrats compared with the Taliban. The Taliban are (with apologies to the Pope) the outer limits of religious nuts. So, just how does one go about identifying a “moderate” Talibaner?

Is a Taliban moderate a guy who, only beats his wife when she breaks one of the 20 million rules Islam imposes on women, and not just when he feels like beating the crap out of her?

Or a Talibaner who refuses to allow his own daughters to attend school, but draws the line at blowing her school up and massacring the staff and students?

Or is he a Talibaner who still believes any woman accused of adultery deserves the death penalty, but should not be stoned to death but rather executed in a more swift, certain and humane manner?

Or is a moderate Talibaner a guy who still insists women cover themselves like houses being fumigated for termites, but lets them show a little wrist or ankle action. (But only one or the other – not both at the same time. I mean the guy's supposed to be a moderate, not crazy.)

Or is a moderate Talibaner a guy who gives up beheadings for Lent?

I just don't know. My best guess is the way to tell the radical from the moderate Talibaner is that the moderate is the one with the missing head. But then, that's just me. I really don't know, and don't think anyone else knows either.

Maybe there are other ways to identify a moderate member of the Taliban – though I'm pretty sure that, after thirty plus years, we are still searching for those rumored, but ever illusive, “Iranian moderates.”

I know the conventional wisdom is that engaging Sunni moderates in Iraq succeeded in crushing the nascent al Qaida in Iraq. But I'm unconvinced. I figure, if the truth be known, those al Qaida thugs had already worn out their welcome in Sunni-land by killing locals for no apparent reason and messing with their women.

That's when the US came along bearing gifts and a proposal;

“Hey, how would you like trading in those rusty old guns for some nice shinny new ones? But wait, there's more. If you act now, we'll not only arm you to the teeth, but we'll pay you real money too boot. In return all we want is for you to stop shooting at us and start shooting at them instead.”

Even these battle hardened Sunni Muslims must have looked at each other and said, “Damn. There must be a Santa Claus after all.”

Okay, fine. No matter why it worked, it worked. So, the reasoning goes, we should give the same thing a try in Afghanistan.

But Afghanistan ain't Iraq. Hell, Iraq looks like a western democracy next to Afghanistan. If goats could immigrate, they'd flee Afghanistan in favor of Iraq.

And the Taliban aren't Sunnis. True, both the Sunnis and Taliban both once ran their respective countries before the US stepped in and shuffled both decks. But Iraq's Sunnis were actual Islamic moderates. When they ran Iraq they ran it with a brutal but businesslike efficiency of a John Gotti or Bernie Madoff. The Taliban, on the other hand, ran Afghanistan pretty much the same way the Khmer Rouge ran Cambodia. In other words, the Sunnis were soft core insurgents. The Taliban are hardcore, all the way to the core.

Finally al Qaida is not the hated interlopers they were considered in Anbar Province, Iraq. Al Qaida and the Taliban are viewed by most Afghans the same way Texans viewed (and still view those rustic characters who fought to the death at the Alamo against Mexican invaders and would-be occupiers.

But one thing I am quite sure of; there's at least one similarity between Sunni insurgents in Iraq and Talibaners in Afghanistan – both are always happy to accept free guns and free money from Uncle Stupid.

I feel better getting all that off my chest. I still have no idea what the right course of action would be in Afghanistan. I mean, now it's sort of like Bush was a doctor who blew an antibiotic treatment. He could have knocked out the infection with persistence of care. But he wasted that moment of opportunity by stopping too soon so he could tend to “another matter.” As a result all he accomplished was to breed a whole generation of antibiotic resistant Talibania-horrendous.

And, rather than ridding that backward nation of it's even more backward Taliban we are now reduced this strategy; try to subvert the dyed-in-the-wool, highly motivated and annoyingly skilled Taliban so we can turn the country over to the phony, dishonest, lazy malingering, underachieving Talibaners — then leave.

So far the only part I like about this plan is the leaving part.

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Taliban are murderers, those who conpromise with them are murderers too
The US govt. just goes for its own strategic and regional interest in Afghanistan. They are ready to work with any killer of Afghan people provided they are in the pay of the US and obey its orders.

Afghanistan was pushed to dark days with the US govt. brought the Northern alliance warlords into power, now it will become a burning hell for its people when Taliban are also included under the name of "moderate"

Obama is playing with the fate of Afghan poor people as much as Bush was doing. Bush and Obana are two faces of one coin.